Guitar has freakin’ lasers to detect pitch

The next time Dr. Evil makes a rap video this is the guitar that they need to use. It has lasers after all and it appears to have a bad attitude as well. The laser system is called the Laser Pitch Detection Pickup. The system can detect the pitch of a string before the player even plucks the guitar strings. The goal is to reduce the latency when recording a stringed instrument.

The system will allow the musician to turn their six string into a powerful MIDI synth using an interface or special pickup. The system avoids the latency that happens between the plucking of the string and the note being heard to allow the tone to be picked up by the MIDI recorder. I am no musician, but apparently the fastest traditional system of this sort on the market has a latency of 12ms, which causes problems with recording.

The Laser Pitch Detect or LPD Pickup system is made by a company called M3i Technologies. The lasers on the system are able to measure the distance to the player's fingers and determine the pitch automatically. The system uses a laser diode set on the end with the bridge. The LPD can be used on any stringed instrument with a fingerboard.